A wise man was once asked ‘Why, of
all things, did God choose the humble thornbush as the place from which to speak
with Moses?’ The wise man replied: ‘If he had chosen an oak tree or a
chestnut tree, you would have asked the same question. Yet it is impossible to
let you go away empty-handed. That is why I am telling you that God chose the
humble thornbush - to teach you that there is no place on earth bereft of the
Divine Presence, not even a thornbush.’

We think of Jesus as the Son of God and Messiah. But yet
if you met him and no one had pointed him out to you, you wouldn’t know he was Jesus. Twice in our
Gospel today John the Baptist says, ‘I did not know him myself.’ (John 1:31,33) John said, ‘he
who sent me to baptize with water had said to me, “The man on whom you see the
Spirit come down and rest is the one who is going to baptize with the Holy
Spirit.’” The descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a
dove on Jesus
was the signal for John. The Pharisees were listening to John speaking and they
did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah, so John said to them, ‘Look there is
the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.’ The Father pointed
Jesus out to John, and now John pointed Jesus out to the Pharisees. Because
Jesus was so normal you would not pick him out from the crowd. Part of Isaiah
which we understand as foretelling Jesus reads like this;

“He had no form or charm to
attract us,
No beauty to win our hearts;
He was despised, the lowest of men,
A man of sorrows, familiar with suffering,
One from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze,
Despised, for whom we had no regard.” (Isa 53:2-3)

Yet this man whom you wouldn’t pick
out from the crowd was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and
to whom we could understand the Father speaking these words of our first
reading, “You are my servant...in whom I shall be glorified…I will make you
the light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
(Isa 49:3,6).

When Jesus comes he does not throw his
weight around so we might miss his coming if we were expecting great things. I
think Jesus comes in a similar way today, as a humble lamb, and because Jesus
comes in so many ways today as a humble lamb we might miss his coming unless
some John the Baptist pointed out and said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world.’ One of the documents of
Vatican II acted as a John the Baptist
telling us that Jesus comes to us in four ways when we gather here for our
Sunday Mass:

Jesus comes in the word of God in the readings, in the Eucharist,
in the congregation and in the priest (Sacrosanctum Concilium 7).

When the readings are being proclaimed, God is speaking to you. If a line
from the text strikes you we normally understand this as God speaking to you.

In
Holy Communion Jesus comes to you in the fullness of his body, blood, soul and
divinity.

Jesus is present in the congregation because where two or three are
gathered in his name he is present in their midst (Matt 18:20).

And Jesus is present in the
priest who offers Jesus to the Father just as Jesus offered himself to the
Father on the cross. Jesus comes to us in four ways when we gather here for our
Sunday Mass: in the word of God, in the Eucharist, in the congregation and in
the priest.

In which one of those four ways would we find it most
difficult to see Jesus present? Is it in the Word of God in the readings because
they are from a culture that is so different to ours; in Holy Communion because
it looks like a thin white wafer of bread; in the congregation because we know
the faults and weaknesses of some people present; or in the priest because we
wonder about his sincerity after recent scandals and because we can see his
faults and weaknesses too?

When Jesus came you would not pick him
out from the crowd, he had to be pointed out by John the Baptist. When Jesus
comes now too in these four ways, in a certain sense you would not pick him out,
he has to be pointed out. This is how I would point out the presence of God in
these four ways.

Although written by humans we believe the books of the Bible
are inspired, God speaks to us today through the Bible.

It requires faith to believe that Jesus is present in
this white bread but as I told you in the past (Homily for
Corpus Christi), on many occasions the bread or wine has physically changed so it actually
looked like flesh and blood.

If someone in the congregation is a nuisance to us,
think of Jesus,

“He had no form or charm to
attract us,
No beauty to win our hearts;
He was despised, the lowest of men.” (Isa 53:2)

If it is difficult to see Jesus
in the priest, remember what we read in the Letter to the Hebrews about Jesus the High Priest, ‘Since
all the children shared the same human nature, it was essential that Jesus too
shared in it…It was essential that Jesus should in this way be made completely
like his brothers so that he could become a compassionate and trustworthy high
priest’ (Heb 2:14,17).

You would not expect God to speak to
Moses from a thornbush. You would not pick Jesus out from the crowd if he were
not pointed out to you. In case we miss Jesus in the crowd, Vatican II points
out four ways in which Jesus is present when we gather for Mass: Jesus is
present in the Word of God in the readings, in the Eucharist, in the
congregation and in the priest. Let us be humble during this Mass so that with
faith we will see Jesus present in these four ways because
if we cannot pick Jesus out from the crowd, the only way we will be able to see
him will be by faith.